Congress claims EC’s Bihar SIR removed 23 lakh women from voters’ list

The Congress, on Sunday (October 5), claimed that names of about 23 lakh women were removed from the voters' list in Bihar under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), with the bulk of them being from 60 assembly seats where a close contest took place in the 2020 elections.

Reiterating its "vote chori" claims, Congress also questioned: if these women had cast their votes in the Lok Sabha elections last year, were those votes considered fraudulent? And did MPs elected on such 'fake votes' help form the government?

All India Mahila Congress president Alka Lamba alleged that "at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, the Election Commission (EC) was committing massive fraud in the name of SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar".

Also Read: 2026 polls: Are voter rights under threat? | Kerala’s big stand against SIR

'23 lakh from six districts affected'

"There are around 3.5 crore women voters in Bihar, but the names of approximately 23 lakh women have been removed from the voters' list," she claimed at a press conference at the Congress's Indira Bhawan headquarters. According to her, 15 lakh men were also removed from the list.

"These women will not be able to vote in the upcoming assembly elections," she said, adding that "we believe this decision is against the Constitution."

"The six districts in Bihar from which the highest number of women were removed from the voters' list were Gopalganj, Saran, Begusarai, Samastipur, Bhojpur, and Purnea," she claimed. Those districts encompass about 60 assembly seats.

"If we look at the 2020 assembly election data, the INDIA bloc parties won 25 seats here, while the NDA bagged 34, and and a close contest took place. Now, the EC has committed massive fraud in these seats in the name of SIR," she alleged.

Also Read: Bihar elections 2025: SIR brings down voters to 7.42 crore from 7.89 crore

Vote theft campaign

The Congress has been running a nationwide signature campaign against "vote theft", during which the party is expected to collect five crore signatures.

"The votes of lakhs of women in Bihar were deleted. In such a situation, our questions are: When these same women cast their votes in the Lok Sabha elections last year, were these votes still fraudulent? Did these fake votes elect MPs who formed the government?" Lamba asked.

"Today, a conspiracy is underway to add and delete names at the last minute, but we will expose it," she added.

"On one hand, Modi was depositing money into women's accounts to influence the Bihar elections, and on the other hand, he, in collusion with the EC, deleted women voters' names from the list," she said.

Also Read: Kerala Assembly passes resolution against SIR; cites Bihar case, flags NRC, CAA concerns

'Purified voters list'

"Modi targeted and cancelled women's votes and took away their rights. But no matter how much Modi and the EC try, we will not allow 'vote theft' to happen in Bihar," she said.

Her remarks came on a day Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar voiced satisfaction over the completion of SIR in Bihar, claiming that the exercise "purified" the voters' list after 22 years. He made the remarks in Patna before ending his tour of the state.

The total number of voters in poll-bound Bihar dropped to 7.42 crore in the final electoral roll published last Tuesday, down from 7.89 crore before the EC conducted the SIR of the voters' list — a reduction of close to 47 lakh voters.

The final figure was increased by 17.87 lakh from 7.24 crore electors named in the draft list issued on August 1, which had removed 65 lakh voters from the original list on various accounts, including deaths, migration, and duplication of voters. While 21.53 lakh new electors have been added to the draft list, 3.66 lakh names have been removed from there, resulting in a net increase of 17.87 lakh.

The final figure may change marginally after supplementary lists are published during the poll process. The EC's exercise drew sharp protests from the Opposition, which accused the poll watchdog of working at the behest of the ruling BJP, a charge it flatly rejected. The Commission asserted that it would not allow any eligible citizen to be left out of the voters' list and, at the same time, not let any ineligible person be on the list.

The assembly election schedule is likely to be announced later this week, and the polls are expected to be held soon.